Big update. Budapest, Switzerland, Germany, Czek thingy

So I've been neglecting my blog-related duties, but never fear my adoring fans!  I have returned to give you an unbiast view of the world!

I last checked in a while back in Budapest, so I'll start from there.

Budapest

So the forrint is an annoying currency, but you can get food for pretty cheap.  Pest is under so much construction that it often gets in the way.  It is, as mentioned be Derek, the more modern and boring of the the paired cities.  Consequently we spent most of our time in Buda.  Derek pretty much covered it.

We climbed a big hill that gave us a great view, then we went to the old castle.  It had a cool gondola to get to the top of the hill on which the castle was constructed.  As it cost money, we walked.

Near the castle was a group of vendors, one of which sold these cool funnel cake things which tasted delicious.  There was also some cool postcard machine a couple was using.  It takes pictures of you and puts you on the postcard you want. We stood behind them and made funny faces, then ran as their pictures appeared in screen.  Has Derek mentioned how much we've matured on this trip?

Nothing else worth mentioning in Budpest.  It is a pretty dull place overall.  Nothing much to see or do.  Next on the list: München!

München

We arrived in one of our most anticipated countries, Germany!  I love Germany!  They may have a bloody past that gave Germans a bad name, but we have found people here to be very friendly.  This place is so far removed from the Nazi controlled Germany that once threatened the world.

Our Hostel was really nice, until the construction Derek mentioned knocked out wifi.  For those who are not aware, there are basically two things we look at when selecting a hostel: price and free wifi.  We will sacrifice cleanliness, comfort, location, and most everythig else for a cheap hostel with wifi.  If a hostel does not have wifi, it is not even considered.

Thus we were very angry at the people who ran our hostel.  Apparently they didn't realize knocking down the wall that contained all of the hostels Ethernet cables would knock out the wifi.  They also made no attempts to fix it.  The hostel employees soon discovered my annoyance.

Anyways Germany is a really cool place.  Meeting Morgan was amazing!  Who would have thought we'd see him here!  He was one of the few people we had conversed with at length in Versailles, and here we were meeting him again in München!  We weren't even supposed to be in Germany that day, but we happened to bump into him while in the middle of a completely random city!

Anyways we explored with Morgan and had a great time.  The Olympic center was pretty cool too.  There were tons of ducks, which Derek and I competed in chasing away.  Morgan filmed with his camera and got a great clip of me slipping, landing on my ass, and sliding several yards down a steep grassy slope.  My jeans were suddenly in desperate need of a wash.  I had landed in a lot of duck shit.

Derek and I spent some time in the Olympic pool.  We went off the high-dive, which was awesome!  It looks so much higher when you're actually up there, and it was pretty sobering to realize there was another platform twice as high. I taught Derek to dive.  I attribute his quick mastery of the skill to my flawless teaching skills.

At one point Derek dropped our locker key, which meant I had to dive to the bottom of a 25 foot pool to lock for it.

One last thing about Germany; delicious food!  Try currywurst if you ever come here!  They have lots of sausages and beefs that are worth trying.  Ok NEXT!

Switzerland!

We were staying on the west coast of Lake Geneva with an old doctor of mine.  Dr. Francois Cachat and his family could not have been more welcoming.  His wife, Elizabeth, treated us to a fantastic tour of the area.

Switzerland is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Standing at the shore of Lake Geneva, you are greeted with a fantastic view of snow-capped mountains looming above, theirs bases shrouded in fog.  It is truly a view like no other I have ever seen.

One day we boarded a train to a mountain resort with Elizabeth.  There was fairly deep snow in the shaded areas, but not yet enough for skiers.  

Derek and I built snowmen on a mountain in the Alps, sort of.  Derek wanted a really tall snow-insect thing.  He threw together mounds of snow that appeared roughly spherical and stacked them 5 or 6 high.  Both his attempts proved as unstable as they were unrefined, and collapsed.

My approach to snowmen is more practical.  I put together 3 carfully crafted parts then spent a long time rounding off the edges and creating an excellent snowman.  

Derek's job was made harder when an enthusiastic dog appeared and began destroying any sizeable snowballs he created. A process emerged of throwing snowballs to distract the dog, them quickly building before the dog returned from his fruitless search.

At length the dog became distracted by a ski lift.  It was the sort that pulls you along while your ski's were still sliding on the snow.  It was basically a frisbee with a cable running from the center to a cable above.  The dog had a firm grip on the frisbee, and nothing could coerce him to let go.

We explored the beautiful mountaintop and hiked down in the afternoon.  The guy at the base told us it would take an hour to hike down.  We followed the train tracks instead of the road, which cut our treck in half.  It still took almost 2 hours.  The guy at the base needs to go back to 2nd grade and relearn his time-telling skills.

On Halloween we carved pumpkin's with Francois' daughter Isabelle.  We made a choir of singing ghosts and a wolf pack.  They came out really well.  

I also helped Isabelle with Isabelle's math project by using pascal's triangle.  I was really impressed by what she had accomplished on her own.  At 13 years old, she was doing math Amrican schools would be unlikely to introduce a student to for another 2 or 3 years.

Elizabeth took us to a town that can truly be called "Cowtown".  (For those of you don't know, Derek regularly refers to my hometown as cowtown.). I believe it was called Gryuere.  There was a cool factory that produced the self-titled regional cheese.  We visited the castle in the area and saw fields of cows below.  All the cows there were equipped with cowbells, resulting in a veritable chorus as you stand near the fields.

Gryuere also had a cool restaurant where everything was modeled acted bones.  The cieling was formed from vertebrae and rib-bones, the tables stood in bone legs, and the swivel chairs were skeletal as well.

We also took a trip down to the Nestle factory and enjoyed some delicious Swiss chocolate.  

We left Switzerland relaxed, rejuvinated, and with a hint of regret. We had a lot of fun, but it was time to move on.  Switzerland was the most beautiful place I've ever been, and I look forward to returning someday.

Praha

Praha, A.K.A. Prague for any anglicized readers, is a pretty laid back place.  I was expecting another Budapest, with not much of interest to see.  I was pleasently surprised.

We did have to deal with a new currency, but a good exchange rate meant we were staying in a decent Hostel for $6 a night.  We began exploring Praha and found it to be a rather enjoyable place.  It feels old, but with an enthusiastic atmosphere.  We climbed a tower on the Charles Bridge, which is like 700 years old.  It gave us a great view of the river.

Derek and I also climbed the hill to the castle area.  I say castle area because saying castle is a bit misleading.  We couldn't find an actual castle, so we figure the series of buildings are collectivley called the castle.  

There is a big fancy gate at the entranc with a funny story behind it.  Apperantly the Spanish architect building it didn't get paid enough, so he got angry.  He wrote the date of the gate's completion in Latin, as was costum, but he mispelled the word "year".  Sounds like a dumb prank right?  Actually it was brilliant.  He dropped one n from anno, the Latin for year, and inscribed ano on the gate.  The king was oblivious to the fact that ano in Spanish means ass, and was pleased with the results.

Anyways there is a cool gothic church in the center of the castle area.  There is also a balcony from which you get a fantastic view of Praha.

We went out in the evening and I had sex on the beach.  Now, I know what you're thinking.  Isn't the Czek Republic a land-locked country?  Why, yes it is.  Sex on the beach actually is a fruity alcoholic drink.  Haha tricked you!  Well some of you hopefully...

Anyways if you want a truly Czek drink (and to puke your guts out) try hot wine.  It is truly repulsive.  They serve a hot, cheap, and fairly rancid wine with little packs of sugar.  Adding the sugar makes it drop from barely tolerable to down right vile.  I barely had a sip of mine before announcing it was delicious and offering it Derek at half-price.  Then I had sex on the beach.  Much better.

The next day we went out for authentic Czek food.  Derek ordered duck and I ordered ribs.  Our meals were about $7 each.  We were quite surprised when Derek's plate arrived with what resembled half of a duck that had been dipped in a deep fat friar.  For the amount of ribs stacked in my plate, I think they must have given me most of the animal.  The food was delicous, and in a quantity that far surpassed what we had expected for $7.

So we didn't stay long in Praha.  We don't have long until our travel days run out, so we're trying hard to use them up quickly.  Next stop, Berlin!

Berlin